The invention relates to a method and a device for making photographic copies, as well as an archive or file unit used in connection with this method and this device.
In the phototechnology, in particular the processing of reorders is problematic. Presently, the negative film is cut into sections of 4 to 6 pictures and paper strips (so-called tabs) are bonded thereon for noting the desired number of individual picture copies. In order to make better use of the capacity of the printers, the latest processing methods (Agfa-Reprint-Order-System and Gretag-Computerized-Reprint-System) provide a processing preparation when a plurality of order centers, per printer, are provided. In these centers, the order is prepared by a laboratory person, that is, after removing the tabs from the film strips, the film strips are bonded to a perforated strip and the order is typed out on a floppy disc, or a perforated tape. In the latter case, exposure corrections may be fed, due to error copies of the first printer throughput. However, the repetition of the copying process presents an organisational problem, in addition to the time and material losses. The typing in of the order data is cumbersome and constitutes a source for errors. The described approaches are also unsatisfactory from the point of view of the customer. The customer receives, after processing the film strips, the strips with bonded on celluloid strips which are hard to write on or with newly mounted tabs. The original order is not present any longer. The returned film strips are cut into shorter pieces which makes the storing and the assembly of new orders more difficult, in particular, that individual negatives due to their difficult handling during insertion into the picture frame of the enlarger would be excluded from making large pictures.
Amateurs and professional photographers have a lot of problems in locating and recognizing the picture contents of negatives, as well as in the searching and noting of the picture numbers when assemblying or handling the work orders. Knowledge acquired for improving the picture quality during the first order, is normally lost for reorder purposes.